Buried
by SgtMac
Summary: Post ENTER THE DRAGON. Regina is undercover to protect Snow's secret and Emma's heart, but she's not who she once was and the danger she's putting herself in could lead to dire consequences. Emma cares more than she realizes and despite the ugliness of their past, Maleficent has never stopped caring. SQ eventually with reflections on DQ from the long ago.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** A quick and dirty three-parter, but well...this is probably the nice part.

_Take places after 4x14._

* * *

It's just past nine-thirty at night and the streets of Storybrooke are already well clear of people – the early curfew that Regina has taken to enacting in times of danger back in effect the moment that Maleficent had been risen from her ashy grave. Now, the only sounds to be heard are the clipping of Emma's boots against the cement of the sidewalk as she walks towards her parents' loft (she's coming from Regina's house – again – and she could have driven but she'd needed the fresh air to try to work her mind around all of the turmoil swimming around in it) and the whistle of the wind.

"Swan," she hears from somewhere behind her and then there's a burst of smoke. When it clears, Maleficent is standing in front of her, in human form as opposed to the previous dragon one that Emma had seen her in when they'd faced off against each other down in the mines beneath the library. Her voice is clipped tight and icy cool and there's certainly an air of almost casual indifference there, but her blue eyes are too sharp and keen for Emma to actually buy that this woman staring back at her – trying to read her – is as emotionally disengaged from her words as she would like Emma to believe.

"Maleficent," Emma answers, turning slowly towards her. Her hands are jammed into the tight pockets of her dark jeans and she can almost physically feel her the razor sharp edges of her own anxiety as it mounts in response to Maleficent's appearance. She's ready to move quickly if she has to, she's ready to react with necessary violence if the woman gazing at her were to attack (and an attack would be understandable considering their short but violent history). But Emma has a feeling about this - a feeling that the dragon-witch isn't here for her at all; no, she's here about Regina.

Regina who she hasn't seen even a hair of since Pinocchio's kidnapping two insanely long days ago; the boy had thankfully been recovered in the garage of his own home the next morning after he had been taken, disorientated and confused as to where he'd been the following evening and how he'd ended up out in the forest and then back where he should be.

He had told Emma and David and an angry and fretful Gepetto (he keeps saying that he never should have trusted that woman, never should have believed her capable of change and it breaks Emma's heart because she knows the truth and knows that as much as she wants to defend Regina on this, she doesn't dare do it for the sake of her safety) that he had seen Regina there, remembers her being in the woods with him, and recalls her using a hard tone to urgently telling him to get home to his father immediately. He'd arrived unharmed and with only rips in his clothing to indicate his odd night.

Everything else is a blur of nothingness – just lost time and empty spaces in young Pinocchio's swiss-cheesed mind once again; while that hadn't been helpful to them before when they'd wanted to know more about the Author and his origins, Emma thinks that's probably a good thing this time considering that it's likely that his experience with Regina and the three Queens hadn't been at all pleasant; it's highly likely that August had been tortured and that Regina had assisted with it.

Because when you're undercover, when you're running a job (and Emma still isn't overly clear why Regina is, just that she feels some compulsion to do so and she knows why everyone is lying to her and there's a likelihood that everything is in some terrible way tied together), then sometimes you have to do the kinds of terrible things that will destroy your soul.

Emma knows the feeling, has been there and has blood on her hands that she wishes she could forget about.

And finds herself wondering how much worse it is when you've never been able to stop seeing the blood on your hands.

"You're looking for Regina," Maleficent states and there's no room in either her tone or her crisp words for arguments; she's not asking for Emma to dispute this, instead she seems to be more than a little bit disinterested in Emma attempting to try.

"I'm not just looking for Regina - I'm looking for all of you. You think this whole little bad girls routine you're on is fun, but it's time for it to end," Emma replies authoritatively, firmly and resolutely sticking to the script of the agreed upon (not exactly) undercover operation, even if she would prefer that this damned thing didn't exist to begin with. Because Regina still is running a con (or trying to, at least) and if this is a bit of a test from Maleficent, she won't be the one to out Regina.

She won't be the one to endanger Regina's life so casually and easily.

But when this is over and she understands the why of it better, she thinks she might just shake Regina for it.

Later.

When everyone is safe and she's bringing bottles of root beer to Regina's office once again.

Maleficent laughs, the sound both amused and annoyed all at the same time. "Oh is that what I'm supposed to believe? That you have an issue with a little bit of casual - all right, let's be fair and go with heavy - drinking and setting police cars on fire? Or is that you're looking to protect your lover from getting herself in too deep too quickly. Maybe getting herself killed." Her eyebrow arches when Emma starts to protest and she shakes her head and smirks at her. "Of course I know."

Emma frowns and tucks her hands even tighter into her pockets. "I –"

"I know Regina," Maleficent says quietly, looking away and down the street, watching a wrapper blow across the sidewalk. "I've known her for a long time and we have a lot of history together. Both good and bad, violent and not. I knew her when she was just a sweet naïve heartbroken young queen who was allowing herself to fall into Rumple's wicked trap. And into my world. She was so different back then, just a little girl who could still smile and believe. She still had hope deep within her. But for all the wrong reasons." She laughs at that, thinking of pep talks delivered in the name of achieving vengeance.

"I don't understand what you're getting at."

"You do. I'm saying that I know that you care deeply about her."

"She's a friend."

"Of course she is," Maleficent answers with practically a roll of her eyes.

"Enough of this," Emma growls out, her frustration finally causing everything in her to pull tight and hard. "Enough of the games that you people always insist on playing about everything. Why can't you ever just play anything straight?"

"Everything is a game, Savior."

"Well, I'm done playing. With you. With everyone. Where is she? Where is Regina?" Emma snaps, stepping closer to Maleficent, aware that the visual she's presenting – of moving in tight towards a terrible woman that the entire town believes is about to try to destroy them all – is deeply unnerving. But Maleficent knows something and more importantly, she's trying to tell her something and right now every instinct in Emma's body is buzzing hot and fiery and trying to tell her that this is something she needs to pay attention to.

"Exactly where she's been the whole time – she's with us," Maleficent says softly and then a hand is lifting up to gently cup Emma's chin. It's an oddly - and uncomfortably - intimate gesture and yet her fingers are soft and not all aggressive like Emma would expect them to be while enacting such a hold. "She's with us. Her old dearest friends. Well, at least I'm supposed to be that to her." She says the word "friends" like it's an expletive, a spat out declaration of vile deceit. Emma thinks about a story in Henry's book, one about Regina betraying Maleficent and then thinks about slaying a dragon down below the library and wonders if this is all just a giant bloody mess and they've been fools from the very beginning of it.

Had Regina really believed that she could re-connect with someone that she'd enacted such a gross punishment upon?

Is that what this is? Revenge from Maleficent? Notice being provided that revenge will be provided in horrific measure?

"Then why are you here?" Emma asks, swallowing hard as she tries to push these thoughts away. "If she's there –"

"It's because she wants to be, yes I know that that's what we're supposed to believe, but truly, dear girl, none of us actually do. None of us have believed for even a moment that the Regina who could be a ferociously protective mother of that precious little boy - Henry is his name, right?" She smiles humorlessly at this and at the way Emma shifts as if to try to defend Henry even though he's not around. Maleficent continues, "Yes, Henry. Named after the father that she murdered so that she could enact this curse." She laughs. "But that Regina wouldn't be humoring Snow White and Prince Charming in any way. That woman isn't at the one who was once the deeply feared Evil Queen." Maleficent steps even closer now, her forehead almost against Emma's but not quite touching - this is simply to ensure that no one can hear them should they happen to try to. "Understand, Savior, I'm here to give you a warning. To make you realize that you might think that you know Regina and you might think that she's strong enough to survive any kind of threat to her life because so far she has managed to survive them all, but you don't know these people…these women that we're with. You don't seem grasp what they will do to her when they actually realize that she didn't just fall asleep like she claims that she did; when they get that August didn't just escape us because she happened to doze off for a minute. He's a boy again; that means that Regina had to have used magic far beyond her means to make that happen – magic that belongs not to her but to the Dark One."

"The Dark One. Rumple –"

Maleficent's mouth moves to Emma's ear and Emma feels herself inhaling sharply at the close intimate contact and the soft puffs of warm hot air she feels against her skin as Maleficent speaks. "Is here in Storybrooke with us. And he has his own dagger back and his own agenda." A tongue slides over the shell of her ear and Emma has the feeling that this physicality is all just a theatre - a reminder of who is actually in charge of this and almost something that Maleficent can't quite resist doing "Which I suspect Regina somehow used to change August back into young Pinocchio and to help him escape from us. Because she's not the Queen that I knew and she actually has a desire to protect others even at the cost of her own life."

"She's changed," Emma agrees breathily. "She's better now." The words are clumsy and not at all what Emma means to say but she can't begin to figure out how she would explain the depth of Regina's growth to anyone who hasn't seen it.

Nor does she really care to try.

"That's debatable, but what isn't is that she's going to get herself killed before this is all over if you don't do something to stop it. She seems to have little regard for her life, but I promise you that my companions have even less than that for it. And believe me when I tell you that they won't just snap her neck when they kill her. If they realize that she's betraying them as I have, if they decide to make her pay for her deceit, then for as strong as she might believe that she is, she won't be strong enough to stop them from destroying her mind before they rip her heart from her chest and crush it."

"Why are you telling me this?" Emma asks, her voice shaky and unsteady as he tries to push away the horrific mental images that Maleficent has just given her. She's seen hearts pulled out now and thinking about it being Regina's -

"Would you prefer I just let you find her body? Mangled and broken."

Emma's jaw clenches. "No, but if you already know she's betraying you –"

"You wonder why I won't just let her face the consequences of her lies to me and to the others. The consequences of turning me into a dragon for thirty years and then letting you slay me. Oh, it's a good question." She licks her lips before replying thoughtfully as she steps ever so slightly back and away from Emma, looking down the empty street again, her eyes narrowing for a moment before she answers," But the thing is, the way that you feel about her…" Maleficent smiles thinly. "As I said, Regina and I have known each other for a long time. We have quite a bit of history and we once had…some kind of a relationship that actually meant something to the both of us for a time and for the sake of that history, I would prefer not to see her lose her life." She looks at Emma once again, her eyes eyes sharp. "You understand, I think."

"Whatever history you have…it's not shared; she and I, we're not lovers."

"Because of the pirate?" Maleficent queries, clearly disdainful.

"Because our time…well, we never had it…but whatever it was, it passed."

"Mm," the older woman answers with a knowing smirk. "Considering that I'm fairly certain that you're the one that she's engaging in this bit of tasteless deceit this for, I would say that maybe she doesn't agree with you on that."

"Me? What does –"

Maleficent's eyes harden and for a moment, Emma thinks that the older woman is staring into some kind of darkness visible only to her and whatever demons plague her. It's a look that she's seen on Regina's face time to time and it reminds her that all of these woman are carrying around their pasts with them, constantly fighting back their internal monsters.

"I'm here for Regina and because I need someone to do what I can't. I can't save her from herself and from her desire to save you – I won't – but understand this, precious Savior, of I weren't here for her, I would gladly answer that question for you." She steps forward and again and then her hand is back on Emma and her fingers grip harder on the blonde's chin. "One day, I will answer that question and then perhaps I will be the one pushing a sword into your belly, girl." She steps back and then lets out a breath. "But that day is not today and Regina will die if you don't find a way to help her."

"How do I get to her? Where is she? Is she in imminent threat?"

"We are all holed up - Regina included - at Rumple's little cabin over by the lake. Hopefully, she's kept her typically sharp wits about her while she's with him, but Rumple always did have a way of crawling beneath her skin and if he has realized what she did, it's possible that he could have already done something. Unlikely, though – he always his reasons for everything and killing her has never been part of his plans. But he likely won't protect her, either. Not if they suspect her. Right now, he's completely in it for himself and if she looks to stand in his way -"

"If he touches her, if he harms her in any way, I will kill him."

Maleficent smiles darkly - even macabrely - at that. "So as it turns out, perhaps it doesn't matter what our parents do to protect our perfect innocence after all, perhaps our true natures will always shine through."

She puncutates her words with a chilling laugh and then she's gone a moment later, leaving Emma standing in the middle of an empty street, the cold air whipping around her and smoke dissipating into the rapidly lowering fog of the night. Emma's confusion is strong, but her need to get to Regina – her fear for the woman who means so much to her for reasons that she can scarcely begin to put into actual words ("our time has passed"...has it?) – is so much stronger.

So she reaches for her phone, dials a number and says, "Whatever is going on, whatever her reasons are for doing this and whatever you guys aren't telling me, it's over; Regina is in danger and it's time to pull her out."

**TBC...**


	2. Chapter 2

The truck pulls up to a sputtering stop just in front of her and then the door is flinging open to admit her entrance. Emma moves quickly, practically lunging towards it. She's nearly breathless with fear and anticipation already, her confused and uncertain mind in chaos as she tries to figure out how to explain to them what she feels deep in her heart that there isn't time to properly explain; the longer that she's been standing here since Maleficent had poofed away, the more that she's waited for her parents to arrive, the greater her feeling over anxiety about Regina's state of health has gotten.

Something is very wrong; something is very wrong with Regina.

And it's really not just a feeling. It's an impression and almost this intense pressure in the middle of her chest. If she thinks, if she concentrates, it's like there's this bubbling panic and while she's afraid, it doesn't feel like her own.

If she didn't know better, she would almost think she was feeling Regina's panic over whatever situation she's suddenly been thrust into the middle of.

"She's dying," Emma blurts out suddenly, her bright eyes suddenly going wild and frightened. She feels weirdly hot and then abruptly cold and then that sense of panic is growing into something raw and uncontrollable. There's this impression of something closing in, like the world is somehow disappearing and growing dark and even more frightening than before.

Which if she is somehow feeling Regina, is somehow connected to this woman in a way that makes no sense and every kind of sense, that's a truly terrifying thought when she considers how much Regina has been through.

"What?" Snow demands, an odd tension in her jaw. Emma has the strange feeling that there's a excitable wildness to the expression on her mother's face - something beyond the fear that she herself is feeling. Guilt. Yes, that.

Because there's a lie beneath the surface of all of this, something dark and ugly and it's why they're all in this terrible situation right now. But there isn't time for confessions at the moment. There's only time to find Regina and -

Find Regina.

That's all that matters.

"Emma," David prompts. "Are you having trouble breathing?" He's frowning at her, noticing the way she's practically heaving with intensity, almost like she's working doubly hard to try to draw oxygen into her lungs. But the windows on the truck are down and the air around them is cool and fresh.

"No. I'm...I'm fine. Maleficent let me know how to find here..." Emma says, recognizing that yes, she does feel like she's struggling for air. But that makes no sense and she doesn't dare to focus on that right now. So she changes tracks; "Gold's cabin. That's where we need to go," she insists to her father. It's only when he starts driving that she speaks again. "But she told me that they'll hurt her if they find out that she's betraying them. She thinks Regina can't...that she can't do this. She thinks Regina has changed too much and can't pretend she is what she isn't anymore. She told me that none of them are actually believing her act."

"Emma," Snow says softly, but her hands are shaking and she looks terrified and almost pale beneath the force of whatever burden she's carrying. "You don't know that. Regina is...Regina's strong. She can...she handle anything."

"You think that she can handle Rumplestiltskin and three pissed off betrayed villainesses all by herself? Because I sure as hell don't; Regina's not the Evil Queen anymore, Mom. She's the woman who texted Henry fifteen times last week to make sure he really wanted butterscotch chips in his oatmeal raisin cookies. Does that sound like a big bad Queen of Darkness to you? "

Snow's eyelids flutter shut for a moment before she turns to David and Emma doesn't miss the almost devastatingly heartbroken expression that passes between her parents before David turns his eyes back to the road. "Snow," he says after a moment and there's so much more being said there, a deeper conversation between them. "We have to tell her the truth..we have to."

"The truth?" Emma prompts, wincing at they hit a rough patch of road.

"The truth," Snow confirms with a swallow. "We lied to you, Emma. We told you that going undercover was Regina's idea, but it wasn't. It was mine. And ll of this...all of this is happening because of something we did. If Regina -"

"We can't think like that," David insists.

"Telling yourself - telling ourselves - more comforting lies just because they might be comforting won't help, either,"Emma answers, her tone short and hard. She has no idea what secret they're keeping from her, but for the moment, it doesn't matter. Yes, she's angry over the lies told - especially because it's led them to this place - but the secret won't help get them to Regina any faster and it likely won't help them save her life if her life truly is endangered; only David's driving will do that. "David, go faster. Please."

"Yeah" David murmurs, his hands clenched hard around the steering wheel.

The truck speeds up, practically jumping over a fallen log as the vehicle rushes through the woods and towards Rumplestiltskin's cabin by the lake.

* * *

The cabin has been evacuated by the time they get to it, but the signs of a fight are obvious; there's furniture overturned and broken on the ground, and multiple indications of fireballs having struck the wall and burned away at the timber there. Which suggests that Regina had put up at least a little fight.

Emma allows herself the smallest of smiles at this; Regina won't just go down without a fight. The smile fades quickly, though, when she considers the hopeless nature of trying to fight off three angry witches and the Dark One.

"She was here," Snow says unneccesarily, her fingers on the burnt wall.

"Was," Emma agrees, continuing to look around. It's just she and Snow inside of the cabin together; David had stayed outside to look around the grounds and keep an eye out for any signs of the villains possibly returning quickly. Which leaves Emma standing awkwardly with the woman that she knows is somehow responsible for this, trying to figure out where the hell Regina is.

But it's the dark blood on the floor and the fireplace poker lying next to it that draws Emma's attention and a loud gasp of horror from her mother. "That's not hers," Snow insists, and she's practically trembling, tears in her eyes.

"Yeah, keep believing that," Emma snaps back and then turns around in a complete circle, looking everywhere around she and her mother. The cabin is definitely empty except for them now - that much is unfortunately quite clear.

Which means that if the blood belongs to Regina, then she's likely in grave condition. The question is if she's still somewhere on this property or -

"Emma!"

It's her father and he's screaming for them. Emma exchanges a look of worry with Snow and then they're both rushing outside and towards where David is bent down over the ground, his bare hands frantically digging away at dirt.

At a hill of dirt that looks like it's covering up what might be a shallow grave.

"No!" Snow screams.

Emma doesn't hear her, though; the only thing she knows is that her hands are extending outwards and magic is rushing from her palms. She vaguely is aware of the fact that her father is being thrown backwards towarsds her shell-shocked mother, but her now glowing bright green eyes are on the dirt as it rapidly spins its way away from the grave, revealing what's beneath.

Regina's still breathing body, her small form somewhat protected by some kind of magical bubble that has been wrapped around her like a sheer cloak.

"She's alive," Emma breathes, and the words don't show off nearly the relief that she feels because her eyes are sweeping over the shuddering frame of Regina Mills and though the woman is clearly in shock, blood seeping down her cheeks from a massive cut across her scalp, thanks to the weird bubble of magic (it's thin and shimmering faintly), she's still drawing air into her lungs.

Unfortunately, now Emma understands the feelings that she's been having - the suffocating darkness that had been closing in. And realizes that yes, she had been somehow picking up on Regina's panic. She tells herself that this is about their bond as teacher and student and their connection that has been formed over the last few years together, but deep down, she knows it's more.

Deep down, she knows that their time never really has passed.

Not as long as they're both alive.

And they are.

They are.

"Regina," Snow says, dropping down next to Emma. She looks up at her daughter in horror a moment later, when the woman who had once been her stepmother doesn't seem to react to her voice at all. When she barely acknowledges that there's anyone with her, trying to save and protect her.

"We need to get her to the hospital," David notes, a blanket suddenly in his arms. Where he'd gotten it from (the back of the trunk, Emma's logical mind supplies) is unimportant; he hands it over to Emma and watches as she wraps it around Regina's body, tucking it tight around her shivering frame. With a quick wave of her hand, she disperses the magic that had been assisting the queen's breathing, trying not to wonder if Regina had formed it herself or if it had been put there as a kind of torture device meant to extend her suffering.

Turns out she won't have to wait very long for her answers.

"You'd better hurry then," a cool voice says from somewhere just behind them. "My companions have been investigating other clues -" her eyes settle on Emma, "Your boy is safe for now, but I wouldn't leave him alone for long; he's the one person Rumple won't yet touch but neither Cruella nor Ursula care a thing about him and if they think he knows..." she shakes her head, her eyes flickering down towards Regina, sadness there. "But they will be back soon and they will be expecting to find Regina still half-dead in her grave."

"You let them do this to her," Emma snaps as she looks up, her simmering green eyes finding Maleficent's bright blue ones as the much older woman icily regards the trio of Charmings from a few steps away from them. "For all of that talk about caring about Regina and not wanting her to die. It was all-"

"It was all truth. She's not dead," Maleficent answers quietly. "And I made it so that she's barely even aware of what she's gone through in that...grave. She will remember being attacked and the fight and maybe she'll even remember being struck by Cruella and unfortunately, I think it's likely that she will recall being put in the grave by Ursula, but not much after that; I was able to cast a stunning spell on her that I think should have help...block most of this out."

"How did this happen?" Emma demands, her hands clenching into fists.

"I warned you about the danger that she was putting herself into - that she was put into by those who were supposed to care about her," Maleficent says as she glares over at Snow and David. "As it turns out, she is still suspectible to Rumple's manipulations and apparently he's not protecting her nearly as much as he once did. I must admit, I truly didn't anticipate that. For as much as he has always...done what he's done to her, I believed he had affection."

Emma's hands clench even harder, bright red sparks flying from her fingers.

"But enough of this silly idle talk; you need to get Regina out of here if you want her to survive this. If any of you want to survive this. The three of you are no match for the others and I will fight with them," Maleficent tells them. Her simmering eyes find Snow and then David's again and there's something like a kind of intense hatred burning there, "I would see you both where Regina was just a few minutes ago if that were in my best interests. But it's not and I would rather see you both suffer. But not her. So flee while you still can."

The smoke is swirling and then she's gone once again and Snow is exhaling.

But Emma is staring at her, a thousand angry questions on her lips as she clutches Regina's still shaking - thankfully incoherent - form against her. She says something - something that sounds a whole lot like Emma's name and then Henry's - and then she's back to gasping for air like she can't seem to get enough of into her even though there's nothing preventing it now.

David says sadly, so resigned, "Later. I promise we'll tell you everything." He leans down then and with a small smile of apology to Emma, takes Regina from his daughter and lifts her up into his own arms, securing her and trying not to think about the fact that it was his own sins that have brought them here. Trying for a moment not to absorb the realization that everything he has always believed about himself including his own basic goodness is a lie.

And the woman gasping against him as she stirs and tries to pull herself back towards consciousness - the woman who had once been so easily and simply described as evil by him and by others, the one he'd been able to see as the opposites to he and Snow and to feel strong because of that - is his proof.

"Okay," Emma agrees, but her voice is rough and hard and he thinks that even if she doesn't know anything yet, everything is breaking into tiny shards of glass between them all and maybe it deserves to but that doesn't mean that this doesn't hurt worse than just about anything he's ever felt before.

Aside from the moment when he'd had to let his baby girl go years ago.

He lets out a breath, looks over at Snow and then turns and walks towards his truck, speaking only when he puts his mouth against Regina's ear and whispers in a voice that only she can possibly hear, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

* * *

They reluctantly don't take her to the hospital in the end - it's far too difficult to protect Regina and that building on the kind of scale that would likely be neccesary should there be an attack. Instead, they take Regina back to her mansion and Emma uses every bit of magic she knows to throw up protective shields and then demands that her parents make the Blue Fairy do the same.

Blue is typically superior and haughty, but when Snow angrily - cursing more than Emma has ever heard her curse - reminds her about how Regina had saved her from the hat, she finally agrees to reinforce the protections around the mayor's mansion to ensure that the enemy can't enter unexpectedly.

Which means that Regina is safe and sleeping soundly in her own bed. Blue had verified the magic done by Maleficent and promised that it would wear off within a few hours, allowing Regina to return to full consciousness then.

For now, though, she's still shaking and warm to the touch, feverish and ill.

But she's alive and she will survive.

After finally fully healing the cut on Regina's temple, Emma turns away from the queen reluctantly and looks over at her parents, his eyes finding the guilt-stricken ones of her mother first. "We're going to talk now," Emma says coolly. "And you're going to tell me the truth about what you did that made Regina think she had to go undercover with those psychos. Why you made her put her life in danger for...any of this crap. No more lies. I want the truth. Please."

"We did something terrible," Snow admits. Her eyes flicker towards Regina.

"To her?"

"No. To Maleficent." A glance at David and then, frowning. "You have to understand, Emma, our world was so much different from this one and we were afraid. We didn't...we didn't know what to do. But we did the wrong thing and we took something from Maleficent in order to protect you."

"Protect me? How? And what did you take from her?"

"We met a sorceror," David notes, looking almost ill. "Who told us that he could help bind the darkness inside of you. I know it sounds...it sounds absurd but it was a very real fear for us. We were told that you could have great darkness in you. The potential for it, anyway, and we...we panicked."

"I don't...the potential...I don't understand any of this."

"The sorceror told us if we brought him something, if we paid a price, he would bind that inside of you. But that wasn't enough. We were scared, Emma. Regina was bearing down on us and...we asked for more. We asked him to ensure that you had a way to fight back. A way to defend yourself."

"Myself or the kingdom? As the Savior?"

Her parents exchange another look, their shame apparent and obvious.

"Right. So this...guy you went to, he manipulated my magic? Did he create it?"

"He ensured that you were born with it. And that it was white magic."

"So all of this True Love shit..."

"Emma."

"It's fake. There's no such thing," Emma says dully.

"Emma, you woke up Henry with True Love's Kiss," David insists. "It's real."

"How do I know that wasn't just...what you did to me? What you made me?"

"It was supposed to be a good thing."

"Yeah. Supposed to be. What price did you pay? Or more to the point, who did you make pay the price because you were unwilling to trust me?"

"Not you," Snow says. "Us. We were unwilling to trust that we could be strong enough to fight against the potential for darkness that was inside of you."

"Don't you get it? We all have that potential inside of us. That's called life. What you did - what you tried to do - was take away my right of free will."

"That's not how our world saw things," David says quietly.

"What did you give this sorceror?"

"Maleficent's child," Snow says, her voice low and horrified like she's experiencing it all over again and truly feeling the guilt of her previous actions. "We gave him...we gave him Maleficent's child. Before it hatched."

"No."

"We thought it was...we thought it was..." David shakes his head, unable to even try to say the words "right thing". A look behind Emma and at the woman tossing and turning in the bed and he knows the words are all wrong.

"You stole her child..." Emma shakes her head, tears in her eyes. "Regina, was that why she was undercover? To protect me from finding all of that out?"

"Yes," Snow admits. "She...I asked her to and she...she agreed to do it."

"Knowing everything that she has done to better herself and knowing that Maleficent might have a grudge against her and all the different shit that Gold has done to her..." she runs a hand through her hair. "God, you put her in the line of fire because you didn't have the courage to tell me the truth?"

"Would you have understood?" David asks. "If we'd told you the truth?"

"Is that your justification for that?" Emma snaps, gesturing towards Regina.

"No," Snow insists. "There is none. We...screwed up, Emma. We did this."

"You did. And you know what, I don't know if I would have handled the truth well, but I think I would have tried to. Everyone around this damned town - including the woman in that bed and the guy I was dating - have done shitty things so I probably would have tried to understand. But you lied to me. You didn't trust me. And you did this. You let her get hurt for you. For me." Her face contorts. "Now I need you to leave. I need you to go away. I need..."

"Emma, please -"

"No. I need space. To try to figure out...I need time to absorb all of this."

"We were scared."

"And now I'm pissed. And I'm scared. And I don't...I need you to leave."

"Regina -"

"Is safe now. With me. They'll go through me to touch her." Her eyes glow with an eerie light, her hands sparking red for a moment before cooling.

"Snow," David says, a hand on her arm. "We need to...she owe her this."

"We love you," Snow insists.

"At this moment, I don't really care. You should have told me the truth and let me try to deal with it. Instead, you lied to me and put our entire family at risk. You put everything that we have built and...what am I supposed to tell Henry about why his mother is hurt? Because his grandmother kidnapped a child?"

Snow's eyes flutter closed and a strangled noise tears from her throat.

"Go," Emma says. "Just go."

The door closes a few moments later and then Emma is dropping down to a knee in the middle of the bedroom, her head rested in her hands. A harsh groaning sob sounds a moment later and then she's falling to the carpet.

She wonders if this is what it feels like to be buried alive.

**TBC...**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Apparently, I lie like a dog and there is one more chapter to come. In the meanwhile, enjoy. Thanks!

* * *

The water that Emma splashes across her face is cold and she finds herself sighing in relief if for no other reason than because it doesn't hurt and right now just about everything hurts but most especially her heart. There are dusty tear tracks still staining her pale cheeks and she wonders if that's the hardest that she's cried since Neal's horrible death months ago.

Probably.

It never seems to stop.

Life never seems to stop hurting.

She thinks about New York and sharing pizza on the floor with Henry.

She thinks about not waking up with a mind full of chaos and a head full of confusion and fear. But it'd all been a lie and this is home even today. Even now when it feels like she has no idea what's real and what's not.

Her eyes shutter for a moment and she tries to not think about the woman tossing and turning fitfully on the bed in the other room or the fact that she'd just asked the parents that she's wanted all of her life to go away.

She tries not to think about a stolen child and broken faith.

But there are things that don't go away just because you want them to; the truth always finds it way out, and apparently, today had been its time.

That doesn't mean that she's ready to deal with it.

She has no idea how to even begin to deal with it.

So for tonight, she'll focus on what she can – on the woman that she can.

Emma turns off the water, dries off her face and hands and then opens the door to the master bedroom and steps back into it, stopping abruptly when she sees the dark figure bent down over Regina's not quite resting form, a hand extended to gently touch the sleeping queen's left cheek.

"How the hell did you get in here?" Emma demands. "We put a protection spell up against you. Blue – the Blue Fairy helped me put it up."

"I presume that the spell that you used would have been meant to keep out those who would do Regina or anyone else currently occupying the house harm," Maleficent says as she gracefully straightens up, appearing to reluctantly pull herself away from Regina's unconscious form. "But as I have no actual desire to hurt her or you, I myself would not be stopped by it."

"And if my parents had still been in this house."

"Then I would not be able to be," Maleficently says with chilling certainty.

"They told me what they did to you," Emma says, stepping closer. Her eyes are on Maleficent who is still looking down at Regina; clear worry on the older woman's face as she regards the sleeping queen. "And…I'm sorry."

"Those aren't _your_ sins to atone for, dearest."

"I know, but _you_ have to know I won't let you hurt my parents."

"No, I didn't expect that you would." She reaches out and touches Regina's cheek once again. "You know, she's never sleep particularly well. As long as I've known her, she's been fitful like this. So undone by all of her demons."

"You forgave her for what she did to you?"

"Trapping me as a dragon and allowing you to kill me?"

Emma offers up an uncomfortable thin smile at that reminder. "Yes."

"It might be difficult to understand, but we went through a lot together."

A tilt of the head and then with breathless realization, "You love her."

Their eyes meet and Maleficent chuckles coolly, looking at Emma with entirely too much understanding to be comfortable. "No more than you."

"I –"

"But in answer to your question, I forgave her because the Evil Queen who betrayed me is not the girl that I knew or the woman who is here now."

"And yet you and your…friends…tried to bring the Evil Queen back out."

"She came to us and dared us to do exactly that. She put herself in danger. For your parents. For your mother. And besides, I always knew she wasn't who she was pretending to be. I've seen too much of her to be fooled."

Emma shakes her head, unwilling to let her off. "You let them hurt her."

"They are not my enemies."

"But she is?"

"No, she's my friend." Her voice is soft and wistful when she says this, her eyes moistening for a moment before she glances up towards the window.

"Is there something out there?" Emma queries, moving to stand beside her and stare out towards the dark empty street in front of Regina's mansion.

"Nothing that I can see nor hear, but I have been gone from the others for long enough now, I think; I should probably be getting back before –"

"Before they asks questions about your loyalty," Emma finishes for her, a hint of cold and anger in her voice. "You betrayed them, too. If they think that you're working against them, will they put you in the ground as well."

Maleficent laughs at that, a smirk on her lips. "I have no fear of them."

"Neither did she."

"On the contrary, Savior, she has great fear of them because she has things to live and die for now. She has those whom she loves. She now has her son whom we both know that she would lie down her life in a minute for. Surprisingly enough, she has the two people that she has hated for so long and she would likewise stand in front of them as well. And you. I'm fairly certain that there's little that she wouldn't do to protect you from harm."

Emma smiles uneasily at that, her hands pushing into her pockets to hide her awkwardness. Then, quietly, "You know, you don't have to do this. You can choose a different path. Fight with us. Help us defeat them and –"

"Then what? Forgive the two people who stole my child away from me? As you will assuredly forgive them for manipulating your life as they did."

"They're my family," Emma says softly.

"And they stole mine away from me. Some things are beyond forgiveness."

"You said you were able to forgive Regina because she isn't that woman who put you under the library anymore. Well my parents aren't –"

"Do you believe that going into the lion's den was Regina's idea?"

"I know it wasn't."

"Then you tell me how much they've actually changed. You tell me how much your beloved parents have actually have earned a second chance after what they did to me. Tell me, do you think they have?" There's a long pause and then her face changes to a cold sneer. "No, I didn't think so. In any case, I haven't changed nearly enough to give them it. Not enough to give up my owed vengeance. And I will see them pay for what they did."

Emma's eyes close. "I'm sorry," she says again.

"I know. And I'm sorry for the heartbreak you will feel when this is all over, but as I said, Savior, there are some crimes that are beyond forgiveness."

She looks over at Regina, then dips a hand down and touches her face once again, her fingers curling in and gently caressing the smooth skin there.

"The first time I met her, she was falling and she still gave me hope. It's probably not the kind of hope that you would understand, but there was something about her, something beautiful. And it fell away. It blackened and grew into something monstrous. I thought the girl was gone; she isn't."

"No," Emma murmurs, even if she doesn't completely understand.

Mal looks at her hard for a moment, evaluating and then nods. "A word of advice - don't ever trust a fairy."

"I'm not sure who to trust, anymore."

"You know," the older woman replies. And then just like that, Maleficent's face hardens into something cold and unreadable as she straightens up and is gone leaving just a cloud of dark smoke behind.

Once it clears, Emma lets out a tired breath and then drops her head into her hands, her eyes sweeping over Regina as she waits for her to wake.

* * *

Her phone buzzing is what brings Emma out of a half-slumber about an hour later. A glance down and she sees that it's her mother calling.

Of course it is.

She's never known when to back off and just provide a little bit of space.

"Give it a rest," she mutters, shoving the phone back into her pocket.

"Problem, dear?" a low half-choked voice says from her side. Emma turns abruptly and looks into the swollen eyes of a woman who just moments earlier had been sleeping. To her great relief, Regina is awake now (though she looks tired and worn out enough that such consciousness might be a temporary state of things as opposed to a long-term one) and aware, too.

"Hey, you're awake," Emma says nervously, standing up and moving closer.

"I think so, yes," Regina mumbles as she tries to straighten up beneath the blankets and gets stopped by the confusion of where she is. She glances around, blinking slowly as she takes in the warm familiarity of her room.

"You're safe," Emma assures her.

"So I see." Emma thinks that she's about to ask what happened, but the question doesn't come and she assumes that Regina doesn't want to know

"How are you feeling?" she asks instead, after a moment of awkwardness.

Regina smiles thinly, the small delicate lines across her face crinkling for a moment and a whisper of emotion flashing turbulently through her dark eyes. If Emma didn't know better, she'd call it fear. "I'm fine. Are you?"

"Yeah. Sure. You know me, right? Pretty good at rolling with things."

"Mm. You might be the one with the…questionable lie detector, Emma, but I think that maybe I can read you pretty well by now, too." Then, her voice almost disturbingly quiet, Regina asks, "How did you find me in time?"

Ah, and so there's the question.

"You have a way of making a life-long impression on people," Emma tells her with a slight chuckle. "Maleficent let me know you were in trouble."

"Oh."

"There's a story there, isn't there? Something between you and her?"

"There is."

"You two were a thing?" Emma asks, an eyebrow lifted. Not that the mental images she's seeing are bad ones, but there's a risk in thinking of Regina that way…it tends to lead to other thoughts that are too complex and too deep to want to delve into. Especially with everything going on.

"For a moment," Regina says, grimacing slightly as she adjusts in the bed.

"She still cares about you. A lot, actually."

"I know; it's complicated."

"What isn't, right?" Emma says as she hands Regina a glass of water, watches as she downs it and then takes it and places it on the dresser.

"Emma, talk to me. What happened? What is…what are you upset about?"

"First you. Promise me that you're all right. I pulled you out of a hole in the ground tonight, Regina, so give me a moment and let me…are you okay?"

"I am," Regina says simply, almost casually.

"They buried you alive," the blonde pushes back, her jaw clenching.

"I remember being put in the grave…somewhat…and a feeling like I couldn't breathe, but I don't remember anything beyond that," Regina insists. "And I assure you, I have gone through much worse than that."

"Is that supposed to actually make me feel better?"

"Yes. Because I survived. Again. A little worse for wear, but I'm alive."

"Right, but you almost weren't. I felt…I think I felt your panic. I know that sounds really strange and doesn't make a lot of sense, but I felt like…I felt like you were afraid and like you couldn't breath. You were afraid, Regina."

"For just a moment and then, whatever Maleficent did to me, it was all gone and there was nothing but quiet and peace and I promise you, I wasn't afraid – not my mind, anyway, though perhaps my body," Regina assures her. "As for why you felt what I was feeling when I was, perhaps because you're my student; maybe our shared magic binds us together."

"Oh," Emma answers softly and if Regina didn't know better, she'd think that perhaps she sounds underwhelmed by that answer. Emma shakes her head then, a flash of anger surfacing. "I don't know how I'm supposed to –"

"You're not –" she stops, wincing again, her hand lifting up to her head and feeling around gingerly for a wound. "Did you heal me?" Regina queries.

"Apparently not well enough," Emma replies, moving towards her as if to check the head injury for herself, her hands already glowing with light.

"I don't feel a wound back there anymore so you must have healed me."

"But you're still in pain."

"Because that bitch still hit me," Regina growls, looking almost feral for a moment – quite the feat considering that she's still laid out on her bed, blankets wrapped around her body. "I'm going to feed her to the dogs."

"Why don't we hold off on murderous plots for the moment," Emma chuckles but she sounds more than a little bit relieved to hear the old familiar Regina – the woman that she knows will never completely give up.

"Fine," Regina grunts. "Now, explain to me why you look–" her voice trails off and she takes a moment to study Emma before saying, "You know."

"About what my parents did to Maleficent? Yeah, I know. My question is, why didn't you tell me? Why did you…you lied to me. Just like they did."

Regina frowns at that. "I know and…but it wasn't my place nor my secret to tell no matter how much I might have wanted to. Considering the vengeance I carried against your mother for nearly five decades, it would have been hypocritical for me to spill it. But…I am sorry that I lied to you."

"I believe you."

"Do you? Or are you just saying what you think I want to hear?"

There's a moment of silence between the two of them while Emma just looks at Regina and tries to see the truth in her eyes, tries to read her as she always has. Finally, "I believe you. That's…I mean that. I really do."

"Okay. So what don't you believe?"

"That anything about me is actually real. That I have anything do with having created any part of myself. I'm the Savior; I've learned to deal with that and accept it. That was what I was made to be." She laughs. "I thought Gold was the one who did it, but turns out my parents helped it along."

"They didn't make you who you are. No spell can do that."

"But people can, right? Gold made you who you are."

"No, I did. I made my choices." She leans foward and then reaches out for Emma's hand and coaxes her into sitting down on the bed. "My mother and Rumplestiltskin certainly didn't help me, but I chose to be the Evil Queen."

"And me?"

Her fingers weave in with Emma's. "You chose to be Emma Swan. An infuriatingly obnoxious woman with a relentlessly brave heart and a kind soul. And both of those things are of your own making. No one else's."

"You're so sure about that," Emma says dully. "And right now, I just feel like I don't know who I am. I feel like I don't know how I'm supposed to respond to any of this. Am I allowed to be angry or I supposed to just accept this because that's what the Savior does." A humorless chuckle and then, "Who would have thought I'd be babbling all of this out to you?"

"Strange bedfellows we have become," Regina murmurs to herself and then with a deep almost frightened frown, seems to think better of her words and decides to change tracks. And then smiles as much as she can considering the pounding in her head. "You know how I know that you are who you are all of your own making? Because you chose to be my friend."

"Because my special white-light nature made that happen."

Regina snorts at that.

"Okay, fine, that sounded ridiculous to me, too."

"Good. Now about your parents –"

"Are you going to tell me to forgive them?"

"No. That would make me just as much of a hypocrite as I would have been if I spilled their secret. What I'm telling you to do is to talk to them. Don't close off your heart to what they have to say. They have their reasons for what they did and they might not be good reasons and you don't have to forgive them if you don't want to, but Emma, I know you and if you don't at least hear them out, if you don't give yourself a chance to listen to them, then the only person you will never forgive for this will be yourself."

"I'm angry," Emma admits. "And really…I'm really hurt."

"You have every right to be."

"But they're my family so –"

"Don't force yourself to forgive them before you're ready; that wasn't my point at all. I simply want you to listen and not become what I became."

"Maleficent said that you were so different in the beginning," Emma recalls. "She said that you gave her hope – a weird kind, but still hope."

"I was and I did and then I became someone terrible. But you're not me." Her palm slides settles over Emma's heart and for a moment, all the two of them can do is both stare at Regina's hand, so gentle against Emma's skin.

"Why did you do it?" Emma asks, her eyes lifting to meet Regina's, her heart pounding fiercely. "Why did you put yourself in that kind of danger?"

"For your mother," Regina replies. "I owed her for what I did to her. If it wasn't for the threat that I had represented to her and to your father and to you, then she might not have felt the need to do what she did. That's a not defense of her actions – we all have to account - just an explanation."

"Is that the only reason?" Emma presses, her eyes narrowing in curiosity as she looks down at the hand that is still settled over her beating heart.

"For you," Regina admits, swallowing hard. She looks down and away for a moment before sighing in resignation and looking back over at Emma.

"Why?" Emma presses.

"Because we're friends."

"They buried you alive," Emma reminds her again, her voice catching in the middle as she remembers her father's bloodied hands and dirt flying around and then that single horrible moment of seeing Regina in the grave.

"I didn't think they were going to do that," Regina chuckles humorlessly.

"That's your defense."

"I'm alive. I keep telling you that."

"And one day you won't be."

"You would have done the same for me."

"Because we're friends," Emma elaborates, cocking her head thoughtfully.

"Because you're Emma and you would save me even if we weren't friends."

"But we are."

"We're something," Regina admits, suddenly sounding so very tired.

"You're exhausted," Emma notes as she starts to pull away from Regina, sliding away from the softness of the palm that had been rested atop her chest. "I'm sorry; this could have waited until morning. Or until you –"

"Emma, come here," Regina says and then she's pulling the blonde back and wrapping her arms around her and Emma's not sure if she's supposed to be giving or receiving comfort because then there's a face pressed into her shoulder and she hears Regina sigh loudly, an emotional catch in her throat as she tightens her hold on Emma. "Just…close your eyes. Okay?"

She thinks she should fight this, should fight against the warmth of Regina's arms and just how good it feels to be held, but her heart is breaking and everything in her mind is chaos and the one thing that isn't – the one thing that remains the same is the defiant stubborn woman pressed against her.

The one that refuses to die and refuses to let her give into the anger in her.

The one that had endangered her own life in order to protect her.

So Emma curls in deeper and she doesn't mean to start crying – she really doesn't, but the tears come and Regina's hold just tightens and there aren't any words, no senseless sounds; she hears a heartbeat and soft breathing.

She thinks she feels a blanket cover her – cover them both – but then her eyelids are falling and Regina is adjusting her hold, but not letting go and all she can think is that she's afraid – so very afraid – but at least she's safe.

For this moment, anyway.

She sighs, breathes, and lets all of her burdens just slip away for tonight.

**TBC...**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Apologies for the long wait on this - I hope it satisfied as an alternate POV of how things could have gone down in 4B. Thanks!

* * *

Emma wakes to the sound of wheezing and it's so unexpected that for a moment, she startles, her body tensing and her hand jerking out so that she can find her gun. It's the arms around her that slow her and then the soft smell that is so uniquely Regina that makes her stop moving and turn around, her mind for a moment shorting out before she remembers the previous night and remembers the hole in the ground and the betrayal and then…then Regina.

"Hey," Emma says softly, a hand reaching out to gently cup the sleeping woman's cheek; she can tell now that the wheezing sound is coming from the former queen and it occurs to her with a jerk of heartbreak in the middle of her chest that the reason for the troubled breathing is probably related to Regina's brief captivity beneath the soil. Thanks to trying to protect Emma.

Regina lets out another gasp and her hand flies out as if to push Emma away, but fingers curl around her wrist and the contact is enough to bring Regina out of her troubled slumber. She blinks and looks up and whispers Emma's name in this almost reverent way that makes that heartbreak turn into something far softer. And far more dangerous. All of this is so dangerous.

"Morning," Emma replies and then looks around for the easiest and least dramatic way to slip out of Regina's hold (she remembers that she'd fallen asleep with her face pressed up against Regina's collarbone, their arms around each other; when she'd woken, she'd found that their legs had somehow tangled up together and that's where they currently are right now), but there's really no subtle way here.

So her escape (and she's honest enough to admit that it's exactly that to herself if not quite to Regina) is not at all subtle and she's moving rapidly away from the bed and trying to pretend that everything she's feeling isn't actually being felt.

But it's all there and just the night before her entire world had been turned upside down.

"Are you all right?" Regina asks as she tries to push herself up; Emma doesn't miss the way that the older woman's elbow quivers and how she settles into something of a half-slump, her body still clearly not recovered enough yet to be able to hold her up. What she'd gone through the night before, with the fight at the cabin and the head injury and then being placed in a magic bubble that had protected her from death, it'd all been far too much for even her, apparently.

And oh, there's the guilt again. The realization that the reason that this had occurred at all was because Regina had been trying to protect Emma from her parents' ugly terrible past.

Parents she loves dearly, but at the moment isn't terribly fond of.

But Regina is looking at her in that way that tells her that she knows and sees everything and is well aware of the turbulence within Emma's head at the moment; it's with that half smile/half smirk and the lifted eyebrow and so Emma sighs and admits, "I'm not okay."

"No," Regina confirms. She watches for a moment as Emma glances around, looking for her jacket and for her shoes. "Emma," she says softly, tentatively. "Unless you're in a hurry, you don't actually have to leave…I mean you don't have to go…yet." She frowns at her stammering and then lets out a rumbling sigh of frustration, annoyed by her sudden anxiety. When she looks up, though, Emma is smiling at her and looking at her like she finds the Queen's uncertainty and sudden awkwardness endearing and almost sweet.

"How about I go do what I need to do and like you said, listen to them and –"

"You don't have to do anything that you don't want to do, Emma."

"I know, but you're right; I won't forgive myself if I don't give them a chance to explain. They're my parents and maybe their reasons suck, but they still have reasons. And after that, I'll bring us back some breakfast and we can have a lazy day doing nothing."

"Sounds like a sleep-over you're proposing, Miss Swan."

"We already did that," Emma reminds her. "And I was thinking more convalescing."

"Are you injured?"

"You did sleep on my arm most of the night?"

"Did I?"

"It's still tingling."

Regina chuckles quietly. "Go, Emma."

"You'll be all right?"

"I'm fine."

"You'll be all right?" Emma repeats again and takes a step closer to the bed.

"I will be."

"You're safe, I hope you know that. I promised you that I'd come in guns blazing."

"And you did. Like the obnoxious blonde White Knight that you stubbornly insist on being. Now, if you could be so kind as to leave so I can sleep, I would be most appreciative." She says this with her familiar mocking term firmly attached, but there's just a hint of nervousness beneath her words that suggests that the reason she wants – needs – Emma to leave is because if she doesn't, other things might end up being said and done.

And perhaps none of them are ready for that just yet.

Perhaps.

So Emma nods and pulls on her jacket. "Maple or chocolate?"

"Cronut or doughnut?" Regina asks with a knowing smirk; the weeks that they'd spent working together before Ursula and Cruella had appeared on the scene had been full of learning little things about each other and though Regina has always known of Emma's liking for odd and often deeply unhealthy snacks, her – the (she reminds her of this forcefully, scolding herself for even letting that thought slip into her still quite clearly feverish mind) sheriff's rather extreme affection for the doughnut/croissant hybrid had caught even her off-guard. That it had ended up being surprisingly tasty is something that she's not overly successful at hiding from Emma.

"I'll surprise you," Emma answers because yeah, she knows of Regina's rarely indulged (except with Henry who is quite the pro at getting Regina to partake of really "bad foods") sweet tooth.

"Maple."

"You got it." She offers up another smile, this one warm and full despite the way her heart is pounding as she considers the conversation that she's about to have with her parents. And Regina, well Regina answers it with one of her own before dropping her head down again.

Emma pauses in the doorway for a moment, her mind again returning to those terrible moments when she had looked down into a shallow grave and seen Regina there, not moving and possibly dead; she thinks that she'll never forget.

But can she forgive?

She supposes that she's about to find out.

* * *

Snow practically leaps off the couch when Emma steps into the loft, her red-rimmed eyes evidence that the short-haired woman hadn't slept at all the night previous. Emma feels a moment of guilt – she'd slept relatively well thanks to Regina – but it passes because the whole reason that she'd needed arms around her and that Regina had been in that bed to provide her with such comfort had been because of the horrific acts and then lies of the people that she trusts the most.

Her parents. Even now, years after finding out the truth, it's still so very weird to call them this.

But they are her parents and she does love them and deep in her heart, as angry and hurt as she is, she knows that she doesn't want to lose them after spending so much time trying to find them. And more than that, she realizes that the depth of her hurt is direction proportional to the depth of her love for these two people; they have hurt her because she adores them.

Still…still.

She holds up her hand to slow Snow's approach. "Wait," she says. "Henry?"

"Already at school; he's worried about both of you, though."

"I'll check in on him after this," Emma says. Then, meeting her mother's eyes, "I'm angry. And I'm hurt."

"We know," David says as he steps out from behind the counter, a towel thrown over his shoulder. His face is covered in stubble and he has the same exhausted look that his wife has.

"You don't. You…I hate what you did."

Snow starts to speak, starts to understand because that's what she wants to do so badly right now; everything in her eyes and in her body language screams that she just wants to make this right. "Emma -"

"No, listen," Emma interrupts, taking a step deeper into the loft. "I know that you want to explain yourselves and try to make this all make sense to me, but the thing is, right now what…what I need is you to listen to me for a few minutes and then…I want to hear your side of the story. I do. But I need you to understand what you did to me. I need you to understand that what you did is what almost everyone else in my life has done to me. I can understand why you put me through the tree; I still would have preferred to have spent a dazed eternity with you than without you, but it's worked out and I have Henry and I have –"she shakes her head. "I can understand that, but this…this was all about you choosing my destiny for me. This was you guys deciding who I would be and saying that if I wasn't that, I wouldn't be good enough for you."

"Emma, no," David says immediately.

"Yes. I needed to be a hero."

Snow lets out a shaky breath and in that moment, it's like all of the lights flicker on in her mind and perhaps it's the myopia that comes with being very focused on your place in the world or perhaps it's that she had never allowed herself to doubt their actions because it had seemed as though everything had turned out for the best. But now, looking in the red eyes of her daughter and seeing the anguish etched so clearly into the lines of her face, everything is so very obvious.

"Emma, I'm…I'm sorry," Snow whispers and it's not nearly enough – not even for her and gods does she wish that there were easy and simple words here, but maybe there shouldn't be considering the hurt that she sees on Emma's suddenly very young face - but these are the only words that she can manage to get out through a throat that's closing up with the horror she now feels.

"We're sorry," David corrects and his hands are noticeably jerking at his sides because he's a man who has always displayed the intensity of his feelings with his strong protective arms. But Emma, she has her own arms wrapped tight around her torso right now and it's as clear as a sign as there could be that any attempt at comforting this away wouldn't be welcomed – not yet, anyway. "We…we thought what we were doing made so much sense."

"Maybe it did," Emma says quietly. "When there wasn't a real person in front of you and when all there was were hypotheticals. But what you did – you destroyed one child to ensure that I became exactly what you needed me to be. How do I live with that?"

"We've actually been thinking about that; thinking about how we can try to fix some of the damage that we created," Snow says. "And to be honest, I think that we were doing it so that we could show you that we weren't the terrible people that you fear us to be –"

"I don't think you're terrible," Emma interrupts. "I think what you did was terrible. But I've done terrible things as well and Regina –"she frowns and then chooses to let that line of thought drop away because this isn't about the woman currently sound asleep in her bed. "Well, we've all done bad things and I can deal with that. It's the lies and the fear that I couldn't make my own right choices that I'm struggling with. I keep wondering now, what's me and what's not me? What is because I am the person that I am of my own making and what's because of what the two of you made me into?"

"I suppose only you know that," David replies. "I think we'd both like to reassure you that you are exactly who you are, but I don't think you'd believe those words from either one of us."

"No," the sheriff admits. "But you said that you had an idea…of how to make this right?"

"We want to find her child," Snow states. "From what we've been able to figure out from talking to Blue, we know that she's out there somewhere. Somewhere in this world. She's here and she doesn't know that she has a home; we want to bring her back to Maleficent. It won't change what we did – nothing can do that; we know that now – but we weren't complete until we had you back in our lives. We weren't right and…we have to – need to - make things right for them, too."

"It won't be easy," Emma says.

"It shouldn't be," David answers. "It took us a while, but –"

"We get that now," Snow finishes. "And whatever it takes, however long it takes, we will find a way to…" she stops, thinks and then says, "You're our daughter and we are proud of you for who you are. For the woman that **you** made yourself into. We are proud of **you**, Emma Swan."

Emma's eyes close. She nods her head slowly. "Okay, tell me," she says finally. "Why?"

"We didn't trust ourselves," David replies. "There was so much going on and we had placed ourselves in the position of being the heroes against the Evil Queen. Suddenly we were being told that our child could have this terrible darkness inside of us and…we forgot, Emma."

"Forgot what?"

"That everyone has a right to make their own destiny," Snow answers and there's a ferocious vehemence in her voice that tells Emma that this conversation – that these words, deliberate and forceful – are exactly why Snow and David look so exhausted right now; it seems quite clear to her that they'd been talking about this all night. Talking and understanding and realizing just how far off the right path they'd fallen. "We forgot that this was your life to lead and your path to walk. We got frightening information and we panicked and decided to stop trusting ourselves that we could be good parents and guide you right. We were afraid – afraid for you and… and afraid for ourselves and we made a bad choice. We chose our fears over you and we have spent a lot of time denying that that's what we did. Never again."

"You'll help me find Maleficent's daughter?" Emma asks, her voice quiet and trembling just a bit because when she looks back at her parents, what she sees is the ferocity of their love.

And maybe for the first time, she also sees the flawed people that she's always needed to see.

"You have our word," David answers.

"Okay," Emma says and thinks that maybe she's about to let it all go and fall into their arms and perhaps it shouldn't be nearly this easy to forgive because it hurts so much still, but after thirty years of feeling unwanted, she's not about to walk away from two people who have spent the night crying over the thought of losing her. Still, she says to her mother (because apparently even if the smart part of her thinks this is dangerous territory, the rest of her knows that this is something that has to be addressed; for this family to heal, all truths must be exposed and laid bare for everyone to deal with), "Regina. What you did with her, the danger that you put her in for me. For your secret. I'm not okay with that, either. She could have died last night. And I…"

"When I screw up, I screw up good," Snow says. "My relationship Regina – what we've gotten back – it means everything to me, Emma and just like with you, I forgot what I have now and why it matters more than anything that's in our pasts. I should have been honest with you from moment one, but I got scared and then I went to the one person that I knew would help me because I know she cares about you as well. I knew that she would help me and would keep my secret and I used that…I know what I did. And I promise you that I will make it right with Regina, too."

"That's the thing," Emma replies. "She likely won't listen if you try because she thinks she owes you – and she does – but not like this. We're a family, Mom." She takes a breath after she says the title, then nods her own agreement with it and finishes, "We protect each other. All of us."

"Is she all right?" Snow asks.

"She is. She just needs to rest; you should stop by and see her…maybe tomorrow?"

"I will. Are you leaving?"

"I promised her breakfast."

"We are sorry, Emma. For what we did, but most of all for not having faith in you."

"I need you to trust me," Emma replies. "I've had a weird life and I haven't always made good choices - despite what you did, I've made some very bad ones - but I turned out all right and maybe I'm not the perfectly good and perfect child that you guys always wanted, but –"

She's not even given a chance to finish before both David and Snow are stepping forward and both of them are wrapping their arms around her like they're holding on for dear life; it's her father's strength and her mother's love and Emma lets out a sigh and drops her head against them. Everything isn't better just because they're hugging, but she thinks that it could be.

She thinks that yes, she could forgive them.

So she hugs back and she holds on and it's just opening the door and giving her family a chance.

Everyone deserves one.

* * *

The lights are off in the house when she steps inside about a half hour later, and she's halfway up the stairs to Regina's room with the box of Cronuts in her hand when she hears the soft talking from within it. Though there's no tension in the tones, Emma's hand immediately goes to her gun and after settling the box on the ground, she's drawing her weapon even as she continues down the hallway. She stops when she looks in and sees Maleficent in there.

Standing over Regina who is propped up against a mound of pillows, her color still a bit too pale for Emma's liking and her eyes still a bit too unfocused, but looking better than she had.

Knowing that she shouldn't, knowing that she should walk away and allow these two women this private moment, Emma instead slides forward. She tells herself that this is old instinct related to her previous job, but she knows this is just very basic curiosity at play.

Mixed with hints of deep worry and possibly jealousy as well.

Not that she wants to think about that.

Instead, she leans in and she listens.

"You're going to get yourself killed if you keep up as you are," Maleficent scolds, clear affection in the older woman's voice. "Is this girl…are these people truly worth your life, Regina? They're your enemies. Snow White is who you allowed –"

"I know what happened," Regina replies, her voice gravelly. "I know very well what happened."

"And yet here you are now. Holding hands with Snow White and wishing to be in the bed –"

"Enough."

"What are you so afraid of, dearest?"

"I don't want to have this conversation with you."

"Why? Do you think I won't be supportive of you and the girl?" Maleficent chuckles at that. "We had our time."

"You saved my life yesterday," Regina notes, changing the subject. "Why?"

There's a beat as Maleficent adjusts to the change, and then, "Ask the question you really mean to ask, Regina."

"Why don't you hate me as much as I hated you?"

"Why did you hate me?"

"Because you let me go. You walked away from me when I needed you most."

"No one could have saved you, Regina. Not me and not yourself. Not even your Savior."

"What's your obsession with her?"

"I could ask the same of you. But how about you answer my question. Why did you hate me so much that you sentenced me to a life beneath the library? And then to a horrible after- life?"

"You said you loved me."

Emma watches as Maleficent seems to shrink for a moment before levels herself out once again, her blue eyes showing such deep pain that there can be no doubt that regardless of what had happened between these two women, the love had been very real.

"I did," Maleficent admits as she sits down on the bed, her hand reaching out to touch Regina before she stops herself. "But I was afraid of the path that you were walking and with the disinterest that you had in abandoning it that you would end up destroying me as well. I was fine in my seclusion, Regina, but you pulled me out of it and you forced me to find my fight again and then you forced me to watch as you lost all of yours and gave in willingly to Rumplestiltskin."

"I thought vengeance would make me hurt less."

"And now we both know."

"But you still want to have yours on Snow and David."

Emma tenses up, her fingers curling around the handle of her gun; she inches forward a bit more, though even she's not entirely sure what if anything she plans to do here. Regina is clearly in no danger from Maleficent and attacking her unprovoked would be…unacceptable.

But she won't let anyone take her family from her.

"I have that right, don't you think?"

"I think there are other ways. Aren't there, Emma?"

Emma sighs and steps forward, holstering her weapon the moment she is visible to the two women. Which is probably a wise thing considering the disdain both are regarding the gun with.

"Yes. We're going to try to find your daughter," Emma says. "We know that she's in this world and that means that she can be located; my parents – I – we promise you that we will find her."

"And you think that that will make it all just go away? Make it all better?"

"I think I'd rather not have to fight you if I don't have to, but for them, I will."

"And I'll be at her side," Regina says softly. "I really don't want to hurt you again, Mal. Ever."

"Then I suppose this is it."

Regina starts to sit, but the moment she does, she sways and nearly topples; it's two different sets of hands which stop her from falling and when she looks up, it's to see two different blonde women staring back at her, one with blue eyes and the other with green ones.

She smiles slightly and there's no easy way to blunt the awkwardness of this moment so she takes a breath and then focuses up on Maleficent, catching Emma slide away out of the corner of her eye. "You told me you loved me once and as much as I could believe anyone at that time, I believed you. Still, you couldn't stop me from falling and that's not on you, but I blamed you for calling yourself my friend when…well, it doesn't matter, anymore. What's done is done, but we can both change our futures. We don't have to keep dancing the same dance that we've always been expected to. We don't have to leave destruction behind us. Let us help you find your daughter. Let us help you find what should have been your happiness thirty years ago."

"I can't forgive them," Maleficent tells her. "I won't."

"You don't need to," Emma replies. "You just need to let us help you. My parents aren't owed your forgiveness and frankly neither am I, but we do owe you finding you your daughter."

"Mal," Regina prompts, wincing as she tries to move again. Her head is pounding and her lungs are still burning; Emma had healed her quite a bit the night before but she imagines it will take several more days of bed-rest before she'll feel up to really moving around.

Or until Henry comes home, at least; he can't be permitted to see her like this.

"I accept your offer," she says finally.

"What about the others?" Emma asks. "They won't be pleased with you flipping sides."

"No, but Regina and I were almost always an unbeatable pair."

"With Emma, we will be," Regina tells her. "They can't defeat us. Not even with Rumple."

Maleficent sizes Emma up for a moment, then nods her head sharply. "You had better be worth all of this, Savior. You had better be worth her." And then she's turning and she's looking at Regina and what passes between them is almost ten years of long-ago heartbreaking history that can't be made young once more; what had been there a long time ago in a far away place can't ever be again.

But that doesn't make the deep feelings less real.

Her eyes close after a moment, wetness gleaming in them and then there's just smoke where she was and a breeze blowing in through the open window of the mansion, cool and crisp.

Like what the air smells like above the top of the trees where only dragons dare fly.

"You okay?" Emma asks after a moment, stepping close again.

"My head is pounding."

"I'll get you some aspirin."

"It can wait; how did it go with your parents?"

"We talked. They explained."

"And you?"

"I listened. It's a start. My mom will be by to see you tomorrow; she owes you an apology."

"She doesn't. What about Henry. Is he -"

"Worried, but calm. He'll stay in class today; he promised. But he'll be hovering tonight, I'm sure."

"Wonderful. Where's my breakfast, Swan?"

Emma chuckles. "In the hallway, Your Majesty. Shall I get it?"

"Yes. And bring a plate; I don't like crumbs in my bed."

"The whole refined Queen thing, right?"

"You can be taught," Regina snarks, but her eyes are twinkling mischievously, devilishly.

"Apparently so. Anything else you require? Perhaps some freshly squeezed orange juice?"

"That would be acceptable. Please moderate the pulp."

"Close your eyes, Regina; I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Mm. Emma?"

"Something else you needed?"

"The truth, dear; are you...upset by what you just heard? About Maleficent and –"

"You'd already told me that you were a thing. For a moment. But you were more than that?"

"More and less. She loved me."

"And you?"

"I was incapable of it. We were going in opposite directions. She needed something from me that I couldn't give her while I was running down the path that I was. In the end, she walked away from me and…I don't forgive betrayal…as you well know. Lucky for me, Maleficent does."

"And now? No reason you couldn't pick up where you left off."

"There's too many reasons to count actually, but only one that matters."

"Which is?"

"Emma," Regina says, her voice breathy and tired. Their eyes meet, and it's all right there. So much truth, so many things unsaid but so very obvious to both of them.

"Right. I'm gonna go get you your breakfast."

"Of course," the older woman nods, looking down at her blankets and her hands and -

"Regina."

She looks up and the first thing that registers is that Emma is much closer than she'd been seconds before, but the next thing is the feel of Emma's hands on her face just before she leans in and gently presses her lips to Regina's. Soft and tentative, immediately breakable if need be.

"I didn't say no," Emma murmurs once she breaks away.

"You technically didn't say anything."

"I think I just did."

"You have no idea what you're doing, Swan."

"I rarely do." And then Emma is leaning in for another kiss and this one is longer and more passionate, a clashing of teeth and lips and even a gentle nudge of tongues after a moment.

"Orange juice," Regina finally mutters and Emma finds herself relieved because she thinks that if she doesn't break away from Regina now and if she doesn't stop touching her and wanting to touch her, then they'll end up together in this bed and she doesn't want to rush this. Her heart is pounding and she wants so much right now but what she wants even more is to enjoy this.

Because she more than most knows that it can all be gone tomorrow.

Buried beneath six feet of dirt with only flowers and a tombstone to mark the ground.

She wants better for both of them than that.

She wants better for herself.

So one last kiss and this one is chaste and ends up with her lips against Regina's still slightly feverish forehead and then she's sliding away and saying that she'll be back in just a few minutes.

Regina answers her with a soft murmur and then Emma is closing the door and running away.

But not very far this time.

And not for long.

* * *

Regina is sound asleep when she returns and she's not even remotely surprised. She checks Regina's temperature, finds it stable enough and then pulls a blanket up over the slumbering woman.

She places the freshly squeezes orange juice on the nightstand and then puts a maple Cronut next to it, a napkin below it and another one on top of it to help keep it fresh and crumb-free.

And then she just sits there and watches.

Watches Regina sleep, not quite effortless and certainly not unburdened, but safe all the same.

She thinks about dragons and witches and a cabin with blood on the walls.

She thinks about unborn babies who'd had no idea of the sins committed in their names.

She thinks about making it right and finding forgiveness along the way.

Which in the end is what all of them are after.

Forgiveness from each other and most important from themselves.

The ability to look up and not see darkness over their heads but instead, perhaps some light.

Her hand slides out and she moves hair away from Regina's brow, the woman murmuring softly at the touch and seeming to instinctively move towards her. Like maybe they fit together.

Like maybe everything happens for a reason.

She's not a fan of fate or pre-determined destiny, but maybe some things are meant to be.

And maybe sometimes you make those things happen.

She lifts up the orange juice and takes a sip of it and then waits for Regina to wake up again.

**-Fin**


End file.
